


Spiderweb

by lookninjas



Series: Children's Work [15]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-07 23:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13445997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookninjas/pseuds/lookninjas
Summary: When Ben fled up north, Han promised not to come and find him.Hanpromised.  Chewie didn't.





	Spiderweb

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: "Something with Chewie?" Also, for clarity's sake: In "The Belonging You Seek," Hux and Rey talk about a car accident that happened while Rey and Ben were living in Northern Michigan. This story takes place in the immediate aftermath.

He doesn’t actually plan on turning his entire extended family (and their friends, and their friends’ friends, and… a lot of people, basically) into his own personal spy network. It just happens.

It doesn’t just happen. It happens because Ben goes missing, and Han is frantic, and Leia is frantic, and Chewie isn’t a lot better, and the odds are long the kid’d wind up that close to the Bridge, but odds do funny things when Solos get involved, so he reaches out to a couple of people. Then they reach out to a couple of people. And it spiderwebs out from there, so by the time Ben gets safe and calls Han –

The good news is the spiderweb works the second time.

The bad news is it keeps working.

Well, not that bad. Yeah, Han made a promise. _Han_ did. Chewie didn’t. If Chewie happens to find out, say, where Rey’s attending school, which building she and Ben are in, where they buy their groceries, if they look like they’re eating enough, if they’ve got clothes that fit, if the car’s okay, if they’re okay –

Which they are, and they mostly continue to be, and the spiderweb stops shaking with information after a while, settles into place, and Chewie almost forgets it’s there until one weekend in January he’s up visiting cousins and someone’s new baby and the phone rings.

He’s known, distantly, that Maz’s old Honda needed new tires. Didn’t think they were that bad, and Han’s son is Han’s son, hard to push. They still should’ve pushed harder. 

The hell of it is he can’t even go into the hospital. Calls Maz, sends her, and then somehow finds himself sitting in his truck in the parking lot, watching falling snow clutter his windshield, waiting and not knowing what for.

Maz finally sends a message through about one in the morning. 

_Get your ass out of the car and get up here._

He doesn’t bother answering, just does what the hell he’s told.

It’s not the first time he’s seen them since Ben vanished – he keeps his distance, doesn’t let them see him, but he’s poked his head in occasionally (hell, if he’s visiting family, they _do_ count) – but it’s still a little weird to see how tall Ben’s gotten, how he fills the hospital bed. Rey barely fits in there next to him. She’s big too, now. Teenager. And Ben’s in his twenties now, of course. All grown up. They still look like kids to Chewie. They’re not, and he’s not going to treat them like they are, but.

He reaches out and smoothes down Ben’s hair. Ben doesn’t even twitch.

Maz looks up at him, adjusts her glasses. “Couple cracked ribs,” she says. “Dislocated shoulder. Mild concussion. All of that’s Ben. Rey just got a little bruised. And a lot scared.”

Chewie nods. He smoothes down Ben’s hair again. “You're taking them home tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” she says. “I’ll stick around a few days, until Ben’s up and running again. Be nice to have some help finding a new vehicle, though. Maybe something a little bigger than the Honda.”

“Funds?”

“Officially unlimited." Maz stares up at him a while longer, than turns her glasses back to face Ben and Rey. "Unofficially – you know what Ben will accept and what he won’t. Make it look like something he’ll accept.”

A little older. A little rusted. Something that looks like shit and runs like a top. “I can do that,” he says, and lets his hand linger a few moments longer before finally pulling back. His voice only cracks a little when he says, “He scared the shit out of me, Maz.”

“Yeah, they’ll do that." She catches his hand in hers. He always thought it was funny – hands that small, and such a good grip. "You and Han weren’t any better.”

“I know." He does. Still doesn’t mean he likes it. 

Maz sighs. Her thumb brushes the back of his hand. "It’s almost over,” she says. “All of this –" She waves her free hand. "Give a few more years. It’s almost over now.”

When Rey’s eighteen. When she can make her own choices as to who her family is, without the government having a vested interest. 

“He might not come back,” Chewie reminds her. “She might not come with him if he does.”

“Yeah, but they will." Maz looks up at him, smiles, a little sad. "Their future isn’t here, Charlie. Never has been. This is just for now.”

He doesn’t ask her how she knows. He doesn’t ask her where she thinks they’re going. He doesn’t even ask her why she’s still calling him Charlie twenty-something years after Ben gave him a new nickname. Instead, he says, “You’re gonna miss the hell out of them, aren’t you?”

Maz shrugs. “Of course I am,” she says. “But I missed you and Han, too. I miss all of you, eventually. That’s part of the job.”

Chewie just squeezes her hand, gentle. If missing them in the future is part of the job for Maz, he guesses he can live with the fact that he has to miss them now. It all moves in cycles, anyway. “Anything I can do?” he asks. “Besides the truck, that is.”

“No, I’ve got it,” she says. “Tell Han and Leia. I’ve got them, and they’re fine. If anything comes up, you’ll know.”

He will. If he’d ever doubted (which he hadn’t, really) today would’ve wiped that away.

He’ll know.

So maybe setting up an impromptu spy network isn’t the worst thing he’s ever done. 

He kisses Maz on the top of the head, strokes Ben’s hair one last time, touches Rey’s shoulder, and leaves.

The kids are okay. In the morning, he’ll go see a man about a truck.


End file.
